I've already been in Yale's pants and, trust me, they aren't that good. One would MUCH rather get into the pants in northern California. In fact, I'm currently dating a Stanford alum, and I'm quite please with the situation ;-)

confirm that alcibiades has all three. his only pending ones are chicago and columbia now, the only two that have barely done any regular decisions yet.

Wow, I'm just now discovering these sub-boards. Very interesting...more places to procrastinate (Yes, I am still learning my way around LSD...you have to admit, xoxo is much less of a maze )

Anyway, Pookie is correct. I have been accepted into all three. I do, indeed, feel very fortunate. However, choosing among them is very, very tough. I almost wish that I had only been admitted to one...

Well, I'm leaning very heavily towards Yale, for many reasons. That said, I'm going to go to all three admit weekends. There is a slight chance I would choose Harvard, though I think it may be too big for my tastes. Stanford would really have to blow me away (I have an east coast bias).

What field are you leaning toward entering after law school? Is that the major reason you're leaning toward Yale, or are other factors (size, less stringent grading system) the major influences? Why the east coast bias?

Well, at this point, I'd really like to do appellate litigation, and, ideally, Supreme Court litigation. A prerequisite for this is a Supreme Court clerkship, and Yale has the highest per capita Supreme Court clerkship placement rate in the nation. So that's one thing. Although Stanford has the Supreme Court litigation clinic, Harvard has arranged to set up its own, and I would be surprised if Yale didn't have one very soon. I also like Yale's size...I am from a small town and went to a small high school, so I'm not worried about feeling claustrophobic. Additionally, with only 15 or so blacks per class, I would be rarer coming from Yale. Lol, yes, the P/F first semester is very enticing, but I'm not afraid of grades. And while the HP/P/LP system is less stressful than the normal grading system, one still needs to have more HPs than Ps in order to clerk for a good judge (if you just want to do corporate law, then it really doesn't matter).

Harvard is very big, though that doesn't scare me either (I have more people in my undergrad class than I would have in my 1L class). I do like the idea, however, of knowing everyone in my class, as I probably would at Yale. I think this actually helps to build a stronger network than I would have at Harvard, despite its size. There is the Harvard prestige...but in law circles (which is where I will be), Yale is number one, and among lay people, Yale is probably the second-most-recognized name. Harvard offers a wider range of classes...but I've looked through the Yale catalog, and there are more than enough for me to take.

To me, there's not much of a reason to choose Stanford, aside from sunny weather and the Supreme Court litigation clinic. It is a very respected school, no doubt, but Yale and Harvard edge it out ever so slightly in prestige. Plus, I'm from the South...I know what sunny, warm weather is like. I'm ready to experience the cold for a few years. Moreover, I want to practice in DC, and Y and H have a better reputation on the east coast.

Finally, it's Yale . Call me a prestige whore, but I've dreamed of going there for the past 3 years. It would be very hard not to go.

So those are some of my reasons at this point. But, like I said, I'm going to give all three a shot.

Right now, I work as a paralegal in a small law firm that does a great deal of public interest appellate and Supreme Court litigation (filed a Supreme Court brief on Friday ... yay!), but only one sixth of our lawyers actually did SCOTUS clerkships. Most of the rest of our attorneys did appellate clerkships, but some chose to do district court clerkships because these clerkships may actually be the most useful for future careers in litigation. Nonetheless, all of our attorneys do appellate litigation (most of our associates have done a 9th circuit argument before the end of their first year) and our Supreme Court work is not limited to our SCOTUS clerks (in fact, our youngest partner, who did his first SCOTUS oral argument last year, did a district court clerkship). So, a SCOTUS clerkship is not a "prerequisite" for appellate practice, although it can't hurt. Also, there's a strong argument that, because SCOTUS clerkships are such a crapshoot, the absolute number of clerks from a given law school is more important than the per capita number, giving Harvard a slight edge if you're goal is a SCOTUS clerkship.

If you're East Coast through and through, I can understand why you'd choose Yale over Stanford. But you should definitely come out to the Bay Area with an open mind ... I've never lived in such an amazing place, and am now finding it awfully hard to consider leaving for law school (which is why I probably won't!)

Regardless, you clearly can't make a wrong decision in this situation. Congratulations!